There are many types of fire extinguishers including portable hand held fire extinguishers and those built into buildings. The portable hand-held fire extinguishers generally have a canister filled with a pressurized fluid. A valve assembly is located atop the canister and can be manually operated to release the pressurized fluid. A hose or nozzle is used to direct the spray of pressurized fluid from the canister.
Fire extinguishers built into buildings include a source of pressurized fluid, such as water, and a conduit system which is in fluid communication with automatic sprinkler heads which are generally located adjacent ceilings in the buildings. The automatic sprinkler heads often include fusible links or members which are heat sensitive and are used to control the release of the pressurized fluid. The heat is generally generated by a fire.
One shortcoming of the portable hand-held fire extinguishers is that they must be manually activated. In cases where portable fire extinguishers do have automatic release mechanisms, they typically are not designed for stand alone use in a room of a building. This is because their automatic release mechanisms are located adjacent their canisters and the canisters generally reside upon the floor. When a fire occurs, heat will rise from the fire and collect adjacent the ceiling. If the automatic release mechanism is located far from the ceiling, the fire can cause considerable damage prior to the automatic release mechanism activating.
The built-in fire extinguisher systems in buildings also have a number of faults. First of all, these systems are expensive to install. Second, as these systems are built into the buildings, they can be difficult and expensive to later modify to provide fire protection in a newly specified area. For example, additional fire protection may be needed in the area of a newly installed computer system or adjacent a Christmas tree. Or else, a different type of fire retardant fluid may be needed as opposed to water which is usually used in buildings.
A problem automatic sprinkler heads have is that they are not particularly well suited to direct pressurized fluid in a particular direction. Generally, the sprinkler heads spray a stream of water onto a deflector which then disperses the water over broad regions. Accordingly, these sprinkler heads are not well suited for directing water on highly localized areas.
The present invention is intended to overcome the above described shortcomings of conventional hand-held fire extinguishers, built-in fire protection systems, and automatic sprinkler heads.